Jasper Slapped

August 07, 2010

Day 29

I know this post is a few days late, but I've been in Scotland (more about that in the next blog) and didn't have internet access. Well anyway today was the last day of class here in London! After class we headed to the Imperial War Museum which is located in the old Bedlam Psychiatric Hospital. The museum is very cool, lots of interactive stuff, real weapons, tanks, uniforms and all sorts of cool historical stuff. There is even a simulation for being in the trenches (very smelly) and living through the blitzkrieg in WWII. We started at the bottom and worked our way up so we walked through WWI, WWII, Modern warfare, crimes against humanity (genocide), and ended up in the Holocaust museum which takes up 2 1/2 floors and has a model of Auschwitz and a lot of other really cool stuff. After the museum Michael, Ashley and I went to Elephant and Castle for lunch. It was very good, I drank a cider and we all split calamari and I ate a chicken sandwich. The pub is a really chill place with a nice outside area.
After lunch we set off for Baker street to visit the Sherlock Holmes house, which is at 221B Baker street and is set up just like a Victorian flat. You can see Holmes's study and bedroom and Watson's study and there are wax figures of the characters and weapons and other things from the books. Next door to the Sherlock Holmes house is The Beatles Store, so we went in there also. They have all sorts of autographed pictures and albums you can buy, some of which was very expensive (we saw Revolver for 800 pounds and a signed picture for 1500). From there we set of in search of Abbey Road, which is actually a pretty busy street and it's difficult to stage a photo on.
That night we all went to Ice Bar, you reserve a table for 45 min and you get a free drink and a big parka to put on. It was really fun, and everything inside is made of ice!

Imperial War Museum

Part of the Berlin Wall

Inside the museum

To the Trench!

Inside the trench, it was dark and smelly

WWII section

The famous Elephant and Castle!

At lunch

Outside the tube stop

Waiting to go inside.

Looking out from the upstairs study

Me dressed up

Watson's study

Wax figures

The Beatles Store!

Abbey Road

Awkward photos while dodging cars

Buckingham Palace

Ready to go out, trying the absinthe from Paris

The girls

New friends at Ice bar!

Me looking through the ice

With our awesome parkas

August 04, 2010

Day 28

It's hard to believe that in 6 days I'll be back in Texas. Tomorrow is the last day of class, we spend the weekend in Scotland and then it's just finals left, crazy. Today after class Meggan and I headed over to TKTS intending to buy Billy Elliot tickets and on a whim I asked about Les Miserables prices and we ended up with Orchestra seats, dead center, seventh row back for 39 pounds! The show was absolutely amazing. I's seen it before but wow, the cast was kick ass here. It's definitley one of my favorite shows, plus the theater was really pretty and tiny.
Before the show, we went to Windsor for the day. Windsor is adorable, the whole town is really cute and the massive castle is really cool. You can't go into much of it but the grounds are really pretty and just seeing the outside is cool. Of course it was raining today so we got wet walking around but it was still fun. We toured the state apartments, saw a table that seats 54 in the Waterloo room and a bunch of other very ornate and well decorated rooms. We also saw the china collection, most of it from the 1700's, and a lot of weapons. All the rooms that weren't specifically for the King/ Queen were full of guns, swords, and knives all arranged in patterns on the walls. The blue and white room of the Queens and the red and gold hall were my favorite rooms. Once again, I can't imagine living in a place like that. We tried to picture getting up in the mornings and walking around in pajamas eating at the giant table and watching tv and it was hard. Everything there is so over the top it's hard to believe people really live there.